Congressman Will Stop Abortion in Kenya, Too
Rep. Chris Smith is the House Republicans' go-to "abortion guy." He's behind the rape-redefining No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. He gets in fights with congresswomen who have had abortions. But it's not enough for Chris Smith to merely focus on domestic abortions. He also has to fly to Kenya, on taxpayer dollars, to ensure there aren't any abortions there either.
Smith, as Mother Jones reports, spent part of last week in Kenya "actively politicking" against a provision in the country's new constitution that allows abortions in cases where the mother's health is at risk. Abortion otherwise is completely banned in the country! But this one small exception — again, on a foreign country's books — merited an official congressional trip that went far beyond the usual meet-and-greet with foreign leaders.
Smith wasn't just meeting with Kenyan politicians and activists during his time in East Africa-he was actively politicking. On March 21, Smith spoke at an event on the new constitution sponsored by the Kenya Christian Professional Forum in Limuru, a town about 35 miles outside Kenya's capital, Nairobi. A staffer for the US-based group Center for Reproductive Rights, which recently opened an office in Nairobi, took notes during the speech. In it, the congressman reportedly called for "a world free of abortion." Smith also accused "pro-abortion NGOs" of having "hijacked" the maternal mortality issue in order to legalize the killing of the unborn, CRR says.
And unlike most congressional delegation trips, this one didn't even try to be bipartisan, as most are. It was just taxpayers funding a trip for one dingbat to Kenya, so he could rant about their abortion laws. We'd have been happy to cover a one-way ticket for Chris Smith, mind you.
[Image of Rep. Chris Smith via AP]